


Moonshine

by sephmeadowes



Category: Twilight Series - All Media Types, Twilight Series - Stephenie Meyer
Genre: Alternate Universe, And Lauren Won't Say She's In Love, Comedy of Errors, Emmett Cullen Is King, F/M, I Have Officially Created The Emmett/Lauren Tag Here, No Bella, Sass King Emmett, Shameless Self-Indulgence To The Extreme, The Twilight Humans Are My Children And They Deserve The World, Werewolf Lauren, high school romance, what have I done?
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2020-09-15
Updated: 2020-12-04
Packaged: 2021-03-06 15:22:24
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 4
Words: 8,687
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/26481112
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/sephmeadowes/pseuds/sephmeadowes
Summary: "I'm not giving up on you, Lauren Mallory. I want you too much."
Relationships: Emmett Cullen/Lauren Mallory
Comments: 8
Kudos: 14





	1. The Relationship Sort

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Emmett is unlucky in love.

Emmett McCarthy always joked about going head to head with a bear. It was one thing to boast about it to his friends and siblings. Emmett was tall and muscled from working at the railroad and lumberyard. He regularly hunted game and chopped down trees with his brothers. He had been a big baby and his mother told him she was nearly ripped apart when his big head came outta her. He was strong and tough and no mean old bear could take him.

Finally seeing a black bear in person was singularly terrifying. His hands shook but he was able to get a shot with his rifle before the bear got on its hind legs and smacked him down with a huge paw. He crumbled like a dandelion in the wind. He tasted his own blood, the cuts on his face stinging from his tears and he realized that his little sister Evelyn was right. He was a big, dumb idiot.

He was going to get killed by a bear and his family would have to live with the shame that their eldest child died because he decided to go on a hunt by himself. The bear was reaching down to finish the deed and he wondered if anyone would even find his body or would he just be a cautionary tale for children not to go into the woods? Would Evie look outside her bedroom window and wait for him to never return? Would his brothers spend days looking for nothing?

A white blur knocked down the bear and he was too weak to sit up and see what was happening. There was what sounded like a struggle with the bear growling loudly. It lasted about a minute before there was a crack, bone breaking he realized, and silence. He waited, blood seeping from his wounds on the ground, as a tall man came over and stood over him.

His eyes were blood red, the same shade as the red stain on his mouth, his skin white as fresh snow. He could've been a demon like the ones Father Walter would rant about during Sunday Mass but they never said demons would be so…pretty. He expected horns and a forked tail, not someone that could've been a prince in the fairytales Evie used to adore.

"I'm not pretty," the stranger grumbled, eyebrows furrowed. "Though you're not too far off to say I'm a demon."

"What are you then, princess?"

Emmett's strength was weakening by the second but he'd be damned to spend his last moments a crying mess. He always told everyone if he was gonna go, he was gonna go laughing.

The stranger leaned down, observing his wounds critically as he swallowed. "What's your name?"

"Emmett McCarthy," he replied. "When…when it's over, please tell my family I went down with a fight. I don't want them to think I pissed myself during the attack. My brothers would laugh over my grave."

"Usually people are terrified when they're about to die," There was a worrying certainty to the stranger's words. "Not making jokes."

"Who says I'm not scared?" Emmett gave him his best devil-may-care smile. "I'm fucking terrified, princess, but that doesn't mean I'm gonna cry about it."

"My name is Edward. You can quit calling me 'princess'."

"Nice to meet you, Edward," He finally closed his eyes. He couldn't feel his limbs anymore. "Sorry our time together has to be so short."

There was a sigh and a cold hand was on his shoulder and jostled him gently. He opened his eyes and Edward was staring down at him with those disturbing red gaze.

"I could save you," Edward offered. "I was never given the choice so I'm offering it. You won't die but you'll become like me."

"Are you really a demon?"

"I'm a vampire."

Certain death or become a creature of the night? He had heard the myths about monsters that feasted on blood and lived forever but he never thought he'd ever get to meet one. He never thought he'd get mauled by a bear either but this was turning out to be the strangest day. What did he even have to lose? His soul? He never had much use for it anyway.

Emmett snorted. "Will I be pretty like you?"

Edward rolled his eyes and picked up Emmett with surprising strength. Emmett was not light but Edward treated him like he was a bundle of feathers.

"Hold on, Emmett McCarthy," Edward told him. "Don't die on me just yet."

* * *

Emmett had a type. He learned early on through puberty that he liked blonde women. He fancied himself in love with his next door neighbor Frances when he was fifteen. All he dreamed about what having her in his bed and he would've promised her the world to have that come true. She was wiser than both of them and laughed away his clumsy attempts at wooing and married his best friend Roger three years later.

He danced with the bride at their wedding and asked her why she didn't choose him. It could've been the two of them instead. Frannie laughed and told him, "You're not the marrying sort, Emmett."

She turned out to be right. She had chosen the better man, steadfast and loyal Roger who she never had to worry would ever fall out of love with her. Emmett fell in and out of love faster than a train changing stations. There were a string of pretty blondes before and after his turning.

Then there was Tanya. He met her when he was a wild and starved newborn. Sex kept the thirst at bay when all he wanted was to drain every man and woman he came across. Tanya was always accommodating and a good match for him in many ways.

He thought he was in love with her. Being with her was easy and they always returned to each other no matter how much time passed. When he told her this, Tanya smiled sadly and said, "You're not the staying sort, Emmett."

She had to be wrong. He had never abandoned his family even when there wasn't much food and through the harshest of winters. He always found a way to provide for them especially after his father died one winter. After he became a vampire, he left them a large bag of money on the porch and hoped that Ethan and Elliot remembered everything he taught them. He hoped Evie found somebody kind and strong to marry.

Emmett wanted to prove Tanya wrong but as the years passed by and every relationship he was in crumbled in his hands he began to wonder if he was a fool fighting against the truth. Frannie was right. Tanya was right. Emmett could only really love his family and that was all he was capable of.

It wasn't the worst thing. He loved his adopted family. Carlisle and Esme could never replace his parents as they were too different from Frank and Ruth McCarthy who had been strict but loving parents. His adopted siblings didn't need him to take care of them like he had his younger siblings. They wanted his company and nothing more.

Emmett had to accept that he wasn't the relationship sort. He wasn't alone in this. Edward was single too (even if it was more a lack of trying than anything else for his brother). He would be fine.

Then, after the first full moon after Lauren Mallory's eighteenth birthday, he bumped into her in the hallway and his world was turned upside down.

* * *

"This is a bad idea," Edward said not for the first time as they made their way to the Mallorys' property. "She's going to get angry at you again."

"She's been angry before," Emmett replied, flippantly. Lauren was always angry. It was her default setting. "And she'll find this charming."

"No. She won't," his brother refuted. "Trust the mind-reader."

Emmett put down the boombox that he found stashed in the attic on the ground and glared at his brother. "Do you want to leave? I asked for a wingman not a bringer-of-doubt."

"I am not a bringer-of-doubt. I'm just pointing out the flaws in your plan."

"Doubt-bringer," Emmett said it like it was a dirty word. "You go back to your Cave of No-Hope and leave me be to woo my girl."

Edward scowled and began walking away. "If she sets you on fire, I'm not calling Carlisle. You're on your own."

Emmett bent down and checked if the mixed tape was inside the boombox before turning it on. He turned the volume up to max and lifted it over his head. Air Supply's _All Out Of Love_ screeched through the speakers. He kept his gaze on Lauren Mallory's bedroom window and waited.

He remembered watching _Say Anything_ back in the eighties and how girls had melted at the scene of John Cusack with the boombox. This had to work. Edward and his doubt-bringer ways be damned.

" _I'm all out of love, I'm so lost without you,"_ the boombox sang. _"I know you were right believing for so long…"_

He perked up when Lauren appeared at her window, her hair messy from sleep. She was the prettiest thing he'd ever seen. She was staring at him in disbelief through the glass as if he was an apparition in the desert. She pushed the window open and called out, "Cullen?"

"Hey, gorgeous!" He grinned at her. "You come here often?"

" _I'm all out love, what am I without you,"_ the boombox continued. _"I can't be too late to say that I was so wrong…"_

"What are you doing here?" Lauren demanded, shouting to be heard over the music. "It's midnight!"

"I missed you!" he admitted, needing to shout too cause the boombox was muffling both their super hearing. "And you won't talk to me at school so here we are!"

Lauren gaped at him, her shock turning to dismay then fury. "I'm calling the cops!"

He shrugged and began singing along to the music, loudly and off-key. " _I'm all out love, what am I without you…_ "

Sheriff Swan arrived in a squad car with a deputy and tried to talk to him about leaving. Emmett ignored them and continued his unappreciated musical performance. Lauren glared at him from the window and shook her head at him. Sheriff Swan finally took the boombox from him and turned it off.

That did not stop Emmett singing the rest of the song except there was no more loud music to cover how bad his voice was. Sheriff Swan threatened to call his father.

"I don't care if you call my Dad – _I'm all out of love_ ," Emmett was not leaving that lawn voluntarily. " _What am I without you?_ "

Dr. Carlisle Cullen had been at the hospital on his shift and arrived at the scene still in his scrubs. He was more than exasperated as he dragged his son with surprising strength and one-handedly while Emmett bellowed out the last line to the song. Lauren was rubbing at her temples as she staved off a headache. Carlisle pushed him into the back seat of his car.

Esme was in the passenger seat and seemed to be reevaluating her desire to have children. "Emmett, why are you harassing that poor girl?"

"I'm trying to woo her," he replied. "It worked in that rom-com."

Carlisle was now in the driver's seat and turned to him, holding out his hand. "Give me the mix tape."

Emmett reluctantly took it out of the boombox and handed it over. He wasn't surprised when Carlisle rolled down his window and threw the mix tape out where it flew through the forest and probably hit a squirrel. Carlisle stared the engine and they began driving away. Emmett stared at the Mallorys' house as it disappeared from view and resolved to try again tomorrow.

He wasn't giving up that easily. Frannie and Tanya had been wrong about him. He was the relationship sort. He just hadn't met the right girl yet. If only he'd known he'd been waiting all this time for a werewolf.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I am solely placing the blame on cafeanna for this. She knew I loved Emmett and I couldn't resist. This is obviously an alternate universe/uncanon fic so please don't go on about Emmett and Rosalie. I love those two and they belong together. But this idea attacked me and would not let go.
> 
> 1\. Where is Rosalie? For this AU to work, she never became a vampire. She married a nice man and had children. Royce never met her and was hit by a train. There is also no Bella because I say so. 
> 
> 2\. Emmett McCarthy's background info is from the Twilight wiki mixed with my own ideas. The names of his family was never revealed so I chose for them.


	2. All The Stories

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Happy Birthday, Lauren.

l

Lauren Mallory's eighteenth birthday started off good. Angela baked a red velvet birthday cake for her which they ate during lunch. Jessica came over to her house and they got drunk on her mother's bottle of Rose in the living room while watching a rom-com starring Hugh Jackman. Her parents were out of town (as per usual) and Lauren went to bed as she began to feel ill.

She thought it was because of too much Rose and not eating enough actual food. She wanted to sleep it off but she woke up in the middle of the night feeling like her skin was on fire. Jessica took her temperature and was alarmed at her fever. She barely remembered Jessica leading her to her car and driving her to the ER.

Since her parents were stuck in Chicago due to a blizzard, Angela's mom, Mrs. Weber was her stand-in guardian. She spent the night aching from head to toe and wanting to jump into an icy lake. Her temperature went down and she stayed another day for observation until her parents finally arrived in Forks and took her home. Her parents weren't ones to fuss and left her to rest in her room and made sure she was fed.

She was back in school and everything was normal again. It could've been food poisoning or just a bug going around. She felt fine until October came and she woke up on day feeling disoriented. She had excess energy and decided to go on a run to get rid of the restlessness in her bones.

It was the weekend and she had nothing better to do. That's when she saw the wolf. It was the largest wolf she'd ever seen, about the size of a bear. It had brown fur and paws too big for its body. It was running through the forest and hit a tree.

It shook its head like a big ruffled dog and its brown eyes widened comically at the sight of her. It froze as if hoping it would stop seeing her if it didn't move. She knew she should've been afraid a wild animal, one so large, being close to her but she wasn't. Instinctively she wanted to bare her teeth at it and she had to stop herself from doing so. The wolf began backing away slowly, nearly stumbling on his overgrown paws, before it turned tail and ran.

Not wanting to linger on what she'd just witnessed, she ran back home. Her dad was making breakfast in the kitchen and gestured for her to sit down. He made her a French omelet and she poured a glass of orange juice for herself. She could hear her mom talking on the phone with a client in the next room.

Lauren cut into the omelet and grimaced at the melted cheese inside. She never had a problem with Boursin before. Her dad noticed and urged her to eat.

"Protein's good for you," he said. "You'll need your strength."

"Volleyball season doesn't start till next month."

"Still, you want to be ready for anything, right?"

"What does that even mean?"

Her dad was the type to make vague comments and he never really explained. Her mother could talk enough for both of them. She took a bite of her eggs to make him happy. The cheese tasted sharper than usual. Maybe he hadn't used Boursin this time.

Her mom sounded unhappy as she began to rip into the other person on the phone. Lauren snorted. Somebody was pissing off Kathleen Mallory. She looked out the kitchen window and saw her mom standing at the edge of the back lawn far away. She swore her mom was in the next room.

She shouldn't have been able to hear her so well. She took a sip of her orange juice and it tasted so acidic she thought it must've gone bad. She poured the rest of her glass into the sink. She finished her omelet and went to her room.

The rest of her day was just as weird. Sounds were too loud. Lights were too bright. And she felt so worn out from the stimulation she burrowed under her comforter in the dark with earplugs and tried to shout out the world.

When night came, she watched the full moon from her window and pushed off the comforter as she began to feel overheated. She took out the earplugs and threw them on the floor as she began to sweat, that familiar head to toe ache blooming out like an angry wound. She was sick again. She thought it was over.

Her mom opened the door, entering her bedroom cautiously. She leaned down and laid a cool hand on Lauren's feverish forehead. She looked sad. Her dad went inside the room too and they wordlessly pulled her to her feet.

Lauren could only lean on them like a lifeless marionette as they led her down to the basement. They'd told her not to go down to the basement as there were repairs needed to be done with cracks in the wall. All Lauren saw was a large cage. Her parents were grim and quiet as they opened the cage and laid her down on the cold steel floor.

"Mom," she called out, grasping her hand in hers with as much strength as she could. "What's going on?"

"It's going to be okay, Laurie," Her mother hadn't called her that since she was little. "We'll be just outside the cage. You'll get through the night."

Alarmed, she turned to her Dad who was standing at the cage entrance. "Dad?"

"We're going to be with you through all of it," he reassured her. "Don't fight it. It'll hurt more if you do."

Her mom got to her feet and pulled away from Lauren who tried to hold on to her desperately. She left the cage and closed the door and locked it with a padlock the size of Lauren's palm. Her mom knelt down beside the cage and reached through the bars to gently move Lauren's sweaty bangs from her face.

"Do you remember when you were little and your Grandpa Ivan used to tell your stories?" she said. "All the stories about the _volkolak_? The men who turned into wolves?"

Her dad knelt beside her mother and added, "And your Pépère Louise told about the _loup-garou_?"

Lauren felt fear and dread pool in her belly. Her bones were aching to her marrow and she wanted to scream. "What's happening to me?"

Her mother answered with much regret, "All those stories were real, Lauren."

* * *

After the worst weekend of her life, Lauren was considering packing up her life and living in a secluded mountain for the rest of her life. That was what her ancestors did before they were hunted to near extinction. She hadn't remembered much of Saturday night aside from the sheer terror and excruciating pain of her bones remaking themselves. She had screamed until her vocal cords broke and the pain continued until all she saw darkness.

Her parents had told her that her wolf form had been furious and wild. She growled and thrashed against the bars of the cage through the night. Lauren understood that fury as she walked around her high school like a festering open wound, daring people to mess with her so she could have an outlet. She was angry at her parents for all the lies and secrets, at herself for not seeing the obvious signs, and at the universe for making her a werewolf and not just the ordinary human she was content to be.

She did not want the legacy of becoming a monster every month and potentially going on a killing spree. She did not want the thing that had caused her Uncle Stephen to take his own life. She did not want to know the myths were more than fiction because if she existed what else did? Vampires and werewolves were real. What other monsters hid in the dark?

She smelled them before she saw them. They smelled sickly sweet like sugar. It could've been a pleasant scent if her senses didn't find it cloying instead. She had to throw away all scented toiletries she owned as they gave her a headache.

She parked her car in the school parking lot, Jessica and Angela walking with her as they made their way into the school. The Cullens walked as a group, ignoring their classmates as they walked through the hallway. Lauren closed her eyes trying to keep herself from reacting at their presence. She wanted to bare her teeth in challenge.

She needed to get away. She turned to make her way to the bathroom but bumped into someone. That sickly sweet scent. She looked up and golden eyes stared down at her, lips quirked up in an easy grin.

"You okay there, gorgeous?" It was the big Cullen, tall and muscled like a wrestler. "You look a little paler than usual."

"You're one to talk," The world felt like it was spinning and all she could focus on was this impossibly handsome man with dark, curly hair. "You're as white as chalk."

He laughed a deep husky sound that sent shivers up her spine. "You got me there, Mallory."

Something was happening. Something her parents and even her grandparents hadn't told her. She felt like a boat unable to move, anchored to the seafloor. And the anchor was this stupid vampire boy.

She told him, almost pleading, "I need to go."

He needed to let her go. She didn't know how but she wanted to get in her car and drive until she was far, far away from there. Fear and panic gripped her and she felt lightheaded. His smile dropped and he looked concerned, hand reaching to touch her arm and she shook him off.

He wasn't fazed by her rejection. "Are you okay?"

"No," Her feet were finally obeying her and she turned to leave. "But that's not your problem."

* * *

Lauren officially met a member of the Quileute pack when she got home and found Leah Clearwater waiting for her on the back porch. She was sipping on a cup of that fancy coffee her father liked and wore only a t-shirt and denim shorts even though it was well into autumn. Leah was a pretty woman in her early twenties with russet skin and her hair was short and choppy as if she cut it herself. Werewolves had a much higher temperature and Lauren learned that this morning when she didn't need to bundle up in her winter coat like she usually did around this time.

Leah introduced herself and explained about the pack. They were a different kind of werewolf from what she was. Lauren was closer to the werewolves in horror movies. The Quileutes could shift at will and did not feel the pull the moon like she did. Lauren had never felt more alone, knowing she was the last of a dying species.

"You need a pack," Leah told her. "You may not be exactly like us but you need the support of a pack. The lone wolf dies but the pack survives."

"Do you like the pack?"

Leah looked away. "That doesn't matter."

"That's a no then," Lauren scoffed. "Why should I join a pack that you clearly don't even like being a part of?"

"Okay, kid. You want the truth? The pack is made up of a bunch of assholes, especially the Alpha who is my ex that dumped me for my cousin. I don't like them but I know that I _need_ them," the older girl said. "Do I enjoy that I need them? Fuck no and you probably won't like them either but we can hate them together."

Lauren decided she liked Leah Clearwater. "Girls gotta stick together, right?"

"Exactly," Leah nodded. "I'll be your mentor as you get used to being what you are."

Lauren felt gratitude bubbling inside of her. The near constant rage was still her companion but it felt nice to hate the world with someone. Misery loved company after all. And it wasn't like she could tell her friends what she was or at least not until she accepted herself first.

"Okay, Wolf Mentor, maybe you can answer something for me…"

She explained what happened earlier when she bumped into Emmett Cullen. The pull, the anchor, the world spinning, it was worse than even the full moon. Leah listened attentively with growing dismay and she explained about imprinting. Disgusted, the older girl remarked, "You imprinted on a leech. You might as well fuck a corpse."

"I'm not happy about this either."

From Leah's obvious disgust, this was not going to go well with the pack. They might kick her out before she was ever part of the group. She would lose Leah as a mentor and she didn't want that. There had to be a way to get out of this imprinting nonsense.

She wasn't going to fall in love with a vampire.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Welcome to my self-indulgent nightmare with imprinting nonsense. I'll be here all week.
> 
> 1\. Lauren is one of the Children of the Moon and according to the Twilight wiki, "The Children of the Moon, also known as werewolves, are human beings that at night and the fullest phase of the moon transform into fearsome feral wolf-like creatures. Werewolves, unlike shape-shifter's, have the strength and power to kill a vampire single-handedly. Their strength coupled with their inability to control the shift into their wolf forms makes them extremely dangerous and resulted in many vampires fearing them. This fear lead to the Volturi nearly eradicating all werewolves from Europe and Asia." The thing I changed from canon is that a wolf has to be born and not made here. They can't infect people to make more werewolves.
> 
> 2\. Leah, Sam and Emily are meant to be around 19 in canon. I've aged them up for their 20's and out of college cause it's better this way. Enough with the teen weddings.


	3. Face The Music

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> The Cullens accidentally get invited to a werewolf cookout.

Edward parked the Volvo in their driveway and paused after he turned off the engine. He grimaced and turned to them, expression grim. He cocked his head to gesture for them to get out and they cautiously went inside the house. He whispered as low as he could that only their super hearing would be able to catch it, "We're in trouble."

 _For what?_ Emmett raised both eyebrows at his brother. _We didn't do anything._

As they stepped into the living room, Carlisle and Esme were seated on the couch. Esme looked concerned while Carlisle was pinching his nose between his fingers and seemed to be praying to a deity for patience.

"Hello, children," Carlisle intoned. "Please take a seat."

They all took a seat on the big grey couch. Carlisle got to his feet and faced them as he began speaking again, "Can any of you explain why Sam Uley just called me to arrange a meeting with us?"

Edward and Emmett both looked at each other in surprise. Alice didn't seem perturbed at all and was reading a fashion magazine. Jasper just leaned back in his seat and waited. Carlisle gave the full blunt of his glare to Emmett.

"I didn't do anything!" he said. "I swear!"

"Then why did the Alpha of the Quileute pack specifically ask for your presence?"

"I don't know. I never even met the guy."

Esme sighed. "Emmett, if you did anything to the pack you're not just endangering yourself."

"But I didn't do anything! Do I look like the type of guy who would piss off a werewolf pack just because I was bored?"

"Yes," everyone replied to him.

Emmett was aghast at their casual betrayal. "Nice to know what you really think of me. Excuse me while I disown myself from this family."

Carlisle turned to Edward who nodded. "He's telling the truth. He didn't do anything."

Jasper gave Emmett a two fingered salute. "Innocent for once in your life, brother."

It was nice to know his siblings had his back even if they were being still snarky shits about it. He asked Alice, "Any visions, shortcake?"

"No visions of our impending deaths," Alice replied. "Though I guess if the pack would be doing the killing I wouldn't be able to see it."

It had been terrifying when they learned Alice's blind spot. She couldn't see visions involving the werewolves. They had no idea why that was and it made the werewolves such a formidable opponent. They could not see an attack if the Quileutes decided to break the treaty.

The pack had nearly doubled in size in the past two years and there seemed to be more being added each day. If they ever went to battle with them, it would be a bloodbath on both sides. Jasper was the only one with actual combat experience and that was limited to dealing with other vampires. Things could go wrong for them very quickly.

"You said he asked for me specifically?" Emmett questioned. "Why me? I don't have a unique ability like Edward or Alice. I'm the boring one."

"You couldn't be boring if you tried, my love," Esme told him with a gentle smile. "Maybe they want you there at the meeting for your charming personality."

"We should staple his mouth shut then," Edward remarked. "The moment he opens his mouth, they'd kill him out of frustration alone."

Emmett threw Edward into the wall and he hit the surface like a cannonball. Plaster rained through the air as Emmett ran towards his brother and got him into a headlock. Edward tried to escape his hold and wiggled like a wild weasel. Emmett had been the older brother to two boys and did not let up, aiming a punch to Edward's ears that made him snarl.

"Boys," Esme called out. "Quit it and clean up that mess. We don't have time for this."

Emmett rolled his eyes but let Edward go but not without another punch to the ear. Edward got a shot into his side before he scurried off to get a broom and dustpan.

Carlisle informed them, "We have to be in La Push in an hour. Don't make us late or I will throw your Xbox into the river."

* * *

Carlisle and Esme were taking his car while Emmett rode with his siblings. They took Emmett's jeep as it had the most room and was best for the terrain going to La Push. They were normally forbidden from stepping foot into wolf territory but whatever was important enough for them to be let in was hopefully not lead to their executions. They were all going as they wanted strength in numbers and Emmett would never admit it but he felt safer having his whole family with him. Carlisle had run through a quick plan with them if things went south, distract the wolves so Alice and Esme could escape, run if you can get away and don't look back.

He'd been with his family for over seventy years. He knew the difference in their gaits and could scent them from a far. He knew their likes and dislikes. He didn't know what he would do if he lost any of them.

The meeting was being held at Sam Uley's house. They found the one story house easily on La Push Road. There were other cars parked nearby and on the porch were some of the pack members, teenage boys only wearing cut-offs. Emmett parked the jeep and paused, turning to his siblings who were all serious and trying to hide how freaked out they were.

"Guys, just in case I die…"

Edward groaned. "Emmett, don't."

"This is serious, Edward," Emmett insisted. "In case anything happens today, I want you all to know that Alice has always been my favorite."

Alice smiled brightly. "I already knew that, silly man."

"I've never said it and it needs to be said," he continued. "I didn't want to go to my grave with people thinking that Edward was my favorite sibling because that would be a sad, terrible lie. He used to be but that was by default."

"I hate you," Edward responded. "I wish I left you in the woods for that bear to eat."

"I hate you too," Emmett nodded to his siblings. "Any more things we need to say before we go to our deaths?"

Alice declared, "You're my favorite sibling too."

Emmett rubbed the back of his neck abashed but flattered. He might've blushed if he could. "This is why you're my fave, shortcake."

Carlisle knocked on the car window and gestured for them to get out. It was time to face the music. If Emmett Cullen knew this was going to be his last day, he would've hired an orchestra to play in the background as he battled an army of werewolves. Instead he would have to make do with the awkward silence.

The teenagers on the porch begrudgingly led them inside the house and to the back yard where the rest of the pack and tribal leaders were waiting. It looked like they were having a cookout. The tallest of the Quileutes must've been Sam who was grilling burgers. When he saw them, another member of the pack took over at the grill and he went to them, still wearing an apron. He was flanked by the tribal leaders and a Quileute woman who stayed close to him.

"We weren't expecting you so early," he said. "Just ignore the teenagers stuffing their faces. They act like their parents don't feed them."

There was a chorus of "Hey!" from those teenagers. Emmett looked past Sam to a table where two girls were seated. One of them was Quileute and the other was Lauren Mallory. What was she doing here? Why were they both glaring at him?

Edward closed his eyes and rubbed his forehead. "Oh no."

Emmett hissed, "What is it?"

"I just found out why we're here."

Sam and the tribal leaders led them to a long table and they sat across from them as they began an explanation about werewolves, magic, and imprinting. It sounded something out of a story, fanciful and romantic. Emmett listened even as he snuck glances to where Lauren Mallory seemed determined to ignore his existence. He was still trying to figure out why she was there.

Was she an imprint of one of the wolves? There were shirtless teenage boys everywhere. Which one was it? Maybe it was the kid almost as tall as Sam, the one assisting the tribal leader in a wheelchair.

"Which brings us to why you are here," Billy Black intoned. "This is the first time in our tribe's history that a wolf has imprinted on someone of your kind."

"Are you saying one of your wolves imprinted on one of us?" Carlisle questioned. "How is that possible?"

"We don't know how or why, we just know who," Billy answered, turning to Emmett. "And there's no way out of an imprinting."

Emmett wanted to slide down in his seat as he felt the full attention of everyone in that lawn on him, wolf, human, and vampire or stared at him like he had committed a crime against nature. He wanted to say something in his defense but he didn't know what he could say in that situation. A wolf imprinted on him, a vampire, and it was so insane that nobody knew what to do about it. No one had the answer to why nature decided two enemy species would be good together.

He swallowed, feeling self-conscious with all the staring and asked, "Who is my…I mean…who is it ?"

Sam cocked his head in the direction of the table with the two girls who both looked bemused at the swell of attention. "The blonde one."

Emmett felt like his head was about to explode. "Lauren Mallory? But she's not Quileute, is she?"

"No, but she is part of our pack," Sam answered. "She's a different kind of wolf from what we are."

Billy continued, "I believe they call it 'Child of the Moon'."

If Carlisle could've gone paler he would've. He looked absolutely terrified. His golden eyes were wide as he looked at Emmett as if he'd just invited the Grim Reaper himself to the cookout. Emmett had never seen his adopted father so unnerved. And it was all because of a teenage girl.

* * *

They went home not long after. Emmett never had the chance to even speak with Lauren directly. Carlisle wanted them to pack up and leave Forks immediately. He didn't shout or look frazzled, he was composed as he urged them to pack their things and start loading their cars. His siblings looked apprehensive but did what they were told. Emmett stayed still at the bottom of the staircase.

"Emmett, we need to leave," Carlisle insisted. "This isn't a joke. We can't stay here."

"We lived beside wolves before and we avoided war with them," Emmett pointed out. "What's so scary about Lauren freaking Mallory?"

Carlisle sighed and gave him a beseeching look. Emmett stayed put and crossed his arms over his chest stubbornly. He was taller than Carlisle and hovered over him by a few inches even with his father's perfect posture. Carlisle sighed and began explaining about his time with the Volturi and how Caius encountered a Child of the Moon and nearly died.

"Hundreds of years ago, the Children of the Moon could be found around Europe and Asia, inspiring legends and horror stories," Carlisle expounded. "Until Caius decided to wipe them out, a bloody genocide, the few that escaped went deep into hiding. And the Volturi are still under order to kill any Child of Moon they find."

"What would they care about a teenage girl?" Emmett replied. "She's not a threat. As far as we know, there's only her."

"The Volturi won't care about that. They'll find her and the Quileutes and wipe them out too."

"How will they find out? None of us are on speaking terms with them last time I checked."

"Aro sees me as a threat," Carlisle countered, looking more exhausted than he'd ever seen him. He took a seat on the stairs and Emmett followed him. "I have too many friends and I have two children with extraordinary gifts he wants to collect. I know how he thinks and he is waiting for an excuse to bring hell upon us."

"That's not going to happen. We won't let him," he tried to reassure his father. "He has his creepy mafia of weirdoes. If he tries to go after you, we call on all those friends you've made over the years and have our own army. And you know what Sam Uley said, one of their wolves imprinted on me, I am under their protection now too."

"There is no glory in war, Emmett," his father's last plea for reason. "Whether it's magic or biology dictating this imprinting, it will not end well for both of you."

"This isn't _Romeo and Juliet_ , Dad," Emmett snorted. "Or _Hamlet_. I don't think the universe gave me the wolf version of a soul mate only for me to lose her."

"The universe has never been fair." Carlisle looked up to where the large crucifix hung on the wall, an echo of his human life. "It takes away as much as it gives."

"Trust me then. You know me. I would never do anything to put our family in danger."

It felt like Carlisle was looking straight into his soul. It felt like a decade until his father nodded and patted him on the back. "Okay, then. You have until graduation to see where this goes. I wish you all the luck in the world, my son."

Emmett grinned. "I don't need luck."

His father would turn out to be very right about one thing. He would need all the luck in the world when it came to Lauren Mallory.


	4. Wolf Like Me

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Lauren adjusts to her new normal.

Lauren did not know how she felt about the Quileute pack. Leah brought her to meet them and the tribal leaders one day after school and Lauren tried to be on her best behavior despite how uncomfortable she was. Being around so many other werewolves put her instincts on high alert and she struggled not to bare her teeth and growl at anyone. They were wary of her as well. They were alike but different and their wolves weren’t sure of what to make of the other.

Leah kept close to her side as she introduced Lauren to the tribal leaders and the Alpha, Sam Uley. Sam was the tallest at seven feet and he moved with a quiet authority and assurance of himself. It put her on edge as her fight of flight instincts was pushing her to do something. The latter felt like defeat and she tried to contain the growing panic inside her.

The meeting was quick with the tribal leaders and Sam explaining to her what they could offer to her if she became a member of the pack which was protection and community, integral for wolves. She hadn’t wanted to tell them about Emmett Cullen and the imprinting but Sam asked her in a voice that vibrated power if there was anything she needed help with and she could not stop herself. They all looked shocked and worried at the news. Imprinting was important to the pack and having a wolf imprint on a Cold One was unheard of.

“Are you sure it’s him?” Billy Black asked. “You could be mistaken.”

“I’m sure,” That pull in the center of her being was difficult to ignore when Emmett Cullen was close by and she hated herself for it. “I’m not happy with this either. I didn’t want him or any of this.”

“He’s still a leech,” Jacob Black pointed out. “What would that mean for the pack if her imprint is one of them? Would we offer the same protection we do with the other imprints?”

“Imprints are sacred,” Sam countered briskly. “No exceptions.”

Embry grimaced. “But it’s a vampire…”

Quill nodded in agreement. “How would that even work between them?”

“That is for them to figure out,” Billy answered. He gave a kind smile to Lauren. “Lauren is pack now and her imprint is under our protection too.”

There were no more arguments with that and Lauren was officially a member of the pack. Since she wasn’t able to shift without the full moon, she wasn’t required to do rounds around town, but had to be guarded during her transformations by two members of the pack for everyone’s safety. She would be required to go to pack meetings and Leah would continue to mentor her as she got used to her condition. Most importantly she would never tell anyone outside of the pack about what they were no matter what reason.

Leah led her outside after the meeting ended. Lauren had driven there in her Prius and Leah decided they should go to First Beach instead of going straight home. The beach was empty as they took a seat on a fallen tree and watched the sunset. Leah had started smoking last year and liked clove cigarettes. Lauren didn’t mind the smell.

In the past week she’d met Leah Clearwater, she’d learned that there was a deep melancholy in the older girl that she hid with barbed insults. Lauren understood it more than she would ever admit and she didn’t mind when Leah went quiet, lost in her own thoughts. They would share silence, comforted in knowing the other person wasn’t judging them and understood they both had pain that could never fully heal. They understood each other’s anger, their armor against a world that never cared for their softness.

“I wasn’t always like this,” Leah let out a shuddering exhale of smoke. “I was nice before everything happened.”

“Is it difficult having to be around Sam and be reminded what he did to you?”

“It feels like somebody picking on a wound all the time.”

“Why don’t you leave then?”

“And go where?” Leah gave her a look, some of her mascara had smudged under her eyes giving her shadows. “Like I told you, the lone wolf dies-”

“But the pack survives,” Lauren had never really felt like she belonged anywhere and was still struggling at the concept. “There has to be a better way of existing then being around people that treat you this way.”

Aside from Leah’s younger brother Seth, the rest of the pack treated Leah as a time bomb ready to go off at any minute. They treated her anger and even her very presence with derision. Sam wasn’t any better as he spoke to Leah with a detachment that was more insulting. Lauren abhorred indifference more than anything in that world and wanted to punch Sam Uley as hard as she could.

“Life isn’t fair. I just have to get over it,” Leah closed her eyes as she took a long drag of her cigarette. The smoke floated around her like a mist. “If you can find me another pack that will treat me better, be my guest. For now, I’ll just have to make do.”

* * *

There was a time when Lauren’s parents loved her. They were great parents who showered her with love and attention. They made time for her and didn’t let their jobs consume them. They attended ballet recitals and brought her with them on vacations to nice places. Lauren had been the sun in the center of their universe and she loved every second of it.

Then Uncle Stephen died. She would remember the day they found out. The house phone in the kitchen rang and she answered it. It was Nana Yelena who had never sounded so grave when she said, “Lauren, hand the phone to your mother.”

Lauren would always remember the shell-shocked expression on her mother’s face as she learned about her brother’s death. The flight to Syracus was long and uncomfortable. She was hungry and wanted a snack. Her mother refused to talk and her dad got impatient and told her to keep quiet as they took a cab to the funeral home.

Her grandparents looked exhausted, a deep-bone weariness she didn’t know how to deal with. Uncle Stephen was unnaturally still in the coffin, like a too realistic mannequin. He didn’t look like he was just sleeping. Those were such odd words for comfort.

This death was what caused the series of changes in her life. Her parents moved them to Forks from Seattle and she had to say goodbye to all of her friends and start new at a strange place. Her parents pulled away from her emotionally, their indifference far crueler than anything she’d ever experienced before. She would later learn that they handled her with cleverly suppressed fear of what she could become someday.

In that large cage in the basement of their house she finally understood. Her bones and flesh breaking and mending for a new form, she learned what they were so afraid of. A new creature took over, sentient but wild, baring teeth and clawing at the thick bars of the cage. She understood why Uncle Stephen killed himself all those years ago.

Her second full moon, her parents weren’t there. She insisted on it. Her father actually looked like he wanted to fight but she assured him that she had a pack now for this. They weren’t needed.

He swallowed, his eyes were sad. “I’m sorry.”

She kept quiet. Silence had worked so well for her mother. She wanted to emulate that coldness. If she didn’t care, maybe this would stop hurting.

“I should’ve been stronger for you,” he continued. “I should’ve been better.”

 _But you weren’t. You left me. Before I was a monster, you already hated me._ The words were on the tip of her tongue.

Instead, she said, “You should go. I don’t need you.”

“If that’s what you want…”

“It is.”

She didn’t need them. Not when they stopped loving her and let her wonder for years what she did wrong. She’d been a child. They lost Stephen and suddenly she didn’t matter anymore.

“Go.”

“Lauren.”

“I said go,” She held on to her control. She could exorcise her anger that night. “I don’t want to spend the night worrying about you.”

She was afraid of what would happen if she escaped the cage. She heard all the ghastly stories from her grandparents. She could picture it. She understood the wolf only wanted one thing – carnage. And names and faces weren’t important for that.

“Call me in the morning,” her father told her. “For peace of mind.”

She nearly scoffed. She agreed because she wanted him to leave. He and her mother got into their car and they left. They were very good at leaving.

* * *

Lauren woke up the next morning aching from head to toe. There were scratches all over her body and a particularly deep one around her ribs. She hissed as she sat up and stretched her sore muscles. She touched the edge of the cut with the tip of her fingernail and winced.

She would heal but not fast enough.

There was a cough. She turned to find Jacob Black facing away from her and holding her clothes for her. She reached between the bars and took them. She dressed quickly, wondering where Leah went.

She remembered getting into the cage. She was upset with her parents and the wolf sensed it like blood in the water, aggressively scratching at her control. Leah and Jacob watched as she shifted. The slow and torturous minutes melting away as she let the wolf took over.

“Is it always like that for you?” Jacob asked.

“From what I’ve been told, it will be.”

“Shit,” he shook his head. “It hurt the first time I shifted but it was only that time. Having to go through that every month would be…”

“Unbearable?” she supplied. “Life is unfair.”

“I know that but isn’t there anything we can do to make it better?”

“Knock me out with a tranquilizer?”

Jacob turned to her and looked contemplative. She shook her head at him and told him she was joking. Leah returned to the basement with coffee for everyone and unlocked the cage. They went upstairs to the kitchen and Jacob got toast for himself before running off to report to the pack.

Lauren asked, “Does Jacob always have to be there for my shifts?”

“We can ask for somebody else. There are Jared and Quil who would be polite,” Leah answered. “Fuck no to Paul. I’d let your wolf take a bite or two out of him for laughs.”

“I mean why can’t it just be us two?”

The older girl looked concerned and placed her mug on the counter. “Did Jacob do anything while I went upstairs? Cause I will not hesitate to neuter him.”

“No. It’s just that I don’t really trust any of the guys.”

“Understandable but both the Council Elders want at least two of the pack watching over you and I don’t see them budging on that.”

“They don’t think you can handle me if I get out?”

“They don’t know how strong your wolf is in comparison to one of us.”

She didn’t know either. She spent the full moon blacked out. All she knew was what her parents told her happened on the first full moon and the stories her grandparents told her. And they were terrifying stories.

“Mamie told me about this old French legend when I was a child,” she began. “The Beast of Gevaudan terrorized a village in the 1700s and killed over a hundred men, women, and children.”

“By itself?”

“All by itself,” Leah took a sip of her coffee. “Mamie told me we were descended from that wolf.”

Leah looked uneasy. “Do you think if you got out of the cage that you would do the same?”

She tried to picture it in her mind. The wolf would run through town looking for victims, tearing them apart with teeth and claws. The streets would be soaked blood red. She would leave a trail of bodies in her wake.

The wolf perked up despite its sleepy state. She pushed it away to the back of her mind.

She didn’t tell Leah any of this. Instead, she answered, “I don’t know.”

That didn’t seem to entirely appease the other girl but she didn’t say anything more as they made breakfast together. She made a French omelet for Leah and they discussed who she would prefer to be with her during the next full moons. She let Leah decide on who would be appropriate. It wasn’t really her they would be watching over anyway.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> 1\. 'Mamie' is used by modern French speakers for 'grandmother'.


End file.
